More and more, that is the case.
The long term effects of that and other policies will come home to roost.
When we were kids, we were driving tractors pulling loads of hay down the State Roads (pavement) at 12. We were cutting, raking, and baling hay (not just loading the cart and stacking it in the barn) by 14, and many of us held a commercial fisheries license by 14, too. I'd harvested my first whitetail deer at 11.
We were encouraged to be responsible, and with that demonstrated responsibility came opportunities and trust to do bigger, better things.
Nowadays, there are laws against kids who are the same age we were then doing the things we did. With nothing left to do but bum around, it is no wonder these kids get into all sorts of trouble.
Deer population whee I lived in NE Oklahoma was almost zero, but I ate my share of possum, coon, blackbirds, pigeons, and rabbits, man those jack rabbits were tough as boot heels, had to stew them for hours. :)
I lived in a town of about 300 and the country was only about 10 feet from our front door. I was shooting 22's by the time I was 5 years old, in 1943.